For Lung Cancer Prevention Please Do Not Smoke

Lung cancer is a life-threatening disease and the prognosis even with the best of treatments available is not very bright. One of the primary reasons for this is that its diagnosis is made at a very late stage. Therefore, lung cancer prevention is the one reasonable thing to do that people need to focus on.

But how do you prevent lung cancer is the important question here. To find this out you need to know the causes of the different types of lung cancer. You see there are certain risk factors associated with a disease such as lung cancer. You can reduce the effect of some of these factors to a certain extent, but unfortunately you cannot avoid all the factors.

The details of these various risk factors and how you can reduce their effect on you is described below.

Tobacco: Smoking of any type of tobacco products has been shown as harmful for the human body, especially the lungs. Smoking has already been identified as the primary cause of lung cancer in the world. It has been found that long-time smokers, who have quit smoking completely, are less susceptible to lung cancer than those who continue to smoke.

Of course it is never easy to quit a habit such as smoking, but if you want to prevent lung cancer, you need to quit smoking. Even passive smoking can cause lung cancer. Passive smoking means being in an environment of cigarette smoke. Therefore, you need to avoid being in a room full of cigarette smoke.

So, remember, if you do not smoke actively or passively, you have largely avoided the life taking demon known as lung cancer.

Environmental risk factors: Besides these preventable risks associated with lung cancer, there are certain environmental causes of lung cancer. However, statistics show that their effect on the tendency of people to develop lung cancer is miniscule as compared to tobacco smoking.

The environmental risks associated with lung cancer include sustained exposure to radon, asbestos, nickel, soot, tar, arsenic, and chromium. These substances are typically found in workplaces, especially in indoor locations. They not only cause lung cancer on their own, but in combination with cigarette smoke serve to aggravate lung cancer. Countries have made efforts at controlling these risk factors in workplaces.

High levels of air pollution especially prolonged exposure to industrial smoke and pollutants can also cause lung cancer.

Beta carotene nutritional supplements have been shown to lower the risk of lung cancer in heavy smokers. A fruit-rich and vegetable dominated diet may possibly lower the risk of lung cancer. Heavy alcohol drinking may increase the risk of lung cancer and therefore needs to be avoided. Being physically active can also lower the risk of developing the disease.

Doctors and scientists have been involved in research to develop vaccines or chemopreventive drugs for lung cancer prevention, but it is yet to show any tangible results.

Lung Cancer